Campaigners’ final bid to bring stroke service to city

Campaigners have mounted a last-ditch effort to bring stroke services back to Canterbury ahead of a final decision on where three new acute units will be based.

Health officials will meet next Thursday to determine whether to give the green light to plans to open three hyper acute stroke units (HASUS) at Dartford’s Darent Valley Hospital, Maidstone Hospital and the William Harvey in Ashford.

But campaign group Chek (Concern for Health in East Kent) says a proviso to move one of the new centres from Ashford to Canterbury if a “super-hospital” is built in the city as a result of a separate shake-up of acute services “makes no sense”.

Chairman Ken Rogers has written to health bosses arguing instead for the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, which already has vascular services, to be backed as the preferred location for stroke care within east Kent.

“It make no sense to waste millions of pounds building a new stroke service at the William Harvey, and then to move it to the K&C at a later date,” he said.

“Patients need the new stroke service now. Then all patients will be able to access the best possible stroke services in the minimal amount of time. This includes patients from Thanet who would face a journey time of about an hour if it was at Ashford. This would be halved if it was at the K&C.”

Meanwhile, one of Canterbury’s county councillors, Ida Linfield (Lib Dem), has called on the authority to look again at whether three units will be able to safely care for stroke patients from Kent, Medway, the London Borough of Bexley and East Sussex for the next 20 years, as is proposed.

The plans would reduce the number of stroke units in Kent, currently six, with the new HASUS providing expert care to patients 24 hours a day.

However, with NHS guidance stating that each will be designed to serve between 500 and 1,500 patients a year, and 3,146 strokes in Kent and Medway alone in 2016/17, Ms Linfield believes as many as six units could be needed when likely population growth is taken into account.

Pointing to research which suggests that the number of strokes nationwide could increase by as much as 44% by 2035 as the proportion of elderly people increases, she said: “I am concerned that the number of stroke patients will exceed the capacity of the three HASUS.”

“The NHS is not following its own guidance about patient numbers for a HASU, and is using reduced figures in a 20 year plan.

“I have consistently asked and questioned this, again and again. I’m not reassured by anything they have told me.

“The sites for the new HASUS as proposed in the NHS report are not spread equally throughout the catchment area. It is planned that they will be at Ashford, Maidstone and Darent Valley and so will all be based in the middle of Kent.

“I completely support Chek’s approach, which is to simply start the HASU in Canterbury now.

“We certainly need more than three sites right now and, if this really is a plan for the next 20 years, then the total which could be needed may be in the region of six. I don’t think anything less is acceptable.”